Being Friday, I have included some tunes from the soundtrack to my day, which got a little longer than usual – when I’m in a system testing mode, I tend to block everything else out, and just let things play. I meant to stop at ten, but since I was in that sort of OCD zone, I ended up with almost two dozen before I stopped.

This week has been alarmingly busy and stressful, really. I’ve been swinging back and forth on the emotional roller coaster all week long, and I’m not entirely sure why. The week hasn’t been entirely without wins – I spent much of Wednesday “on stage”, so to speak; I did a couple of long, high-profile briefings and demonstrations for very important people™, and while the whole process was exhausting to this particular introvert, I can say that I managed to totally kick all kinds of ass, and made some people very happy.

Though for every high, there was a corresponding low (though really, I’d probably call it something closer to track one below – low can be really low sometimes). This lifestyle I find myself in right now is just exacerbating this sort of thing for me; though I’ve started taking some steps to hopefully level things about a bit soon.

Might have a bit of a breather coming up, thankfully. Due to the holiday and burning some leave, next week is a short one, and weeks will contine to be short for a while, because the whole furlough thing officially starts on July 8. So, I’ll have nothing but long weekends until the end of September, but will be compensated twenty-percent less per week for that entire period. I’ll have some more time for me, but I’ll have the added stress of a reduced budget. It’s a wash. It’s that balance thing again.

I’m going to try and give myself a project for those non-paid Mondays, though – I need to indulge some of my creative impulses that haven’t been getting too much attention – most in my social media circles who have weighed in suggest songwriting or something otherwise musical, and thus far, I’m inclined to agree. 11 days, 11 songs? That’s completely doable.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

In any case, here are tunes:

1. “Hopeless Bleak Despair” – TMBG
2. “Lover’s Eyes (live)” – Mumford and Sons
3. “Sitting Still” – REM
4. “Come On Eileen” – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
5. “Slide” (live) – Goo Goo Dolls
6. “Unsatisfied” – The Replacements
7. “Highway To Hell” – AC/DC
8. “Dancing With Myself” – Billy Idol
9. “Big Country” – Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer
10. “Don’t Let Me Hide” – The Badlees
11. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – U2
12. “Don’t Cry” – Guns n’ Roses
13. “Your Hand In Mine” – Explosions in the Sky
14. “The Promise” – When In Rome
15. “Cowboy Hat” – that dog.
16. “Indie Rokkers” – MGMT
17. “Livin’ On A Prayer” – Bon Jovi
18. “Shake It” – Metro Station
19. “Blue Monday” – New Order
20. “Anchor” – Letters to Cleo
21. “Happy Together” – The Turtles
22. “Up All Night” – Slaughter